Corner Café

Tonight, I called Mom to tell her about my Pay Per View adventures with DIRECTV (it was Harry Potter, get your minds out of the gutter!), and she wasn't home.  This was odd since I knew she had gone to lunch with her brother-in-law and his grandson (and some other people on that side of the family), and they didn't have any other plans for the day.

I called her later in the evening, mostly just to make sure that everything was okay.  She said that when they were out earlier, Dale (her husband) had asked for a piece of sugar-free chocolate pie to go, but when he went to eat it tonight, it was coconut pie.  So they had gone back to the Corner Café to exchange it.  They were told that when the server went to get the chocolate pie for him, they were out, so she just gave him coconut.  Uh, what?

Dale said he liked coconut, so that was fine.  This exasperates me, but it's not my pie.  At this point, though, they weren't sure if it was the sugar-free pie (and since Dale is diabetic, this important), so they threw it out and cut him a new slice from the sugar-free coconut pie.

Now, this is where the story is actually important.  Mom was making fun of Ray and Kathy (who had actually chosen the restaurant) because when they get stuck on a restaurant, they go there (LITERALLY) every day.  They were there on Thursday with Mom and Dale before they went on a Kohl's shopping spree, and they were back there today.  And Kathy had mentioned that they were there again Friday.  I said to Mom that she was not much better because she had been there twice in three days.  But then when she mentioned going back to return the pie, I said, "Ha!  Now you've been there three times in three days!  You're tied with Kathy!"  She maintained that it didn't count because she didn't go IN to the restaurant -- she just drove there and Dale went in.  So DALE it tied, but she is not. 

I told her that I was going to blog about how she's just as bad as Kathy.  She said, "Then I feel bad for YOU because your life must be pretty boring if that's the most exciting thing you have to blog about.  AND if people actually read that, your friends must be pretty bored, too."

Hmph.

List #9: Things I Wanted to be When I Grew Up

(This is in no particular order.)

1.  A little black boy tap dancing on Bourbon Street
We spent a LOT of time in New Orleans when I was growing up.  And I was too young to understand the several things wrong with this statement.  I just knew that there were little black boys having fun tap dancing on the corners of Bourbon Street, they were having all kinds of fun, AND they were making cash.  FUN!

2.  A tri-professionalist: a teacher, a farmerette, and a Burger King drive-thru cashier
When I was looking through one of my childhood diaries many years ago, I found an entry that said exactly this.  I remember writing it.  For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher - I think this is mostly because I got to boss people around (also, I remember telling my mom that I'd get to wear heels and I'd get to clack down the hallways).  A farmerette sounded cool because I'd get to be around animals and save them from being killed.  I decided that a farmer was dumb when I could be a farmerETTE (apparently, Smurfette had a bigger impact on me than I realised).  And, finally, I had to be a Burger King Drive-Thru cashier because they were the epitome of cool.  They were the first people that I had seen that got to wear the headphones when taking orders.  That was really super awesome.  I just HAD to have THAT job!  (Give me a break.  I think I was about ten when I wrote this.)

3.  A marine biologist
I thought it meant I'd get to swim with dolphins.

4.  An English literature teacher
I thought it meant I'd get to read all day.

5.  A librarian
I thought it meant I'd get to read all day.

6.  A playwright
Then I found out I'm much better at writing narrative than dialogue.  I absolutely suck at dialogue unless it's a transcript of one of my mom's phone calls.

7.  An astronaut
But there's a height requirement.

8.  An attorney
Most of you know this story.  I won't go into it again here.

9.  A public health practitioner.
This one is ongoing, and shall be continued.  Stay tuned.

Recipe: Avocado-Tomato Salad

2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and cubed
2 c grape tomatoes
1/4 c thinly sliced red onion
1/4 c reduced-fat Italian salad dressing
1 T lime juice
1 t sugar
1/2 t chili powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

1.  In a large bowl, combine the avocados, tomatoes, and onion.  In a small bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients.  Pour over avocado mixture; toss gently to coat.

Notes: I made the dressing the night before and refrigerated it.  This worked well (in case you should ever need to save time the day of, like I did).

Nutrition information for 1 cup:
Calories: 197
Fat: 16 g (2 g saturated)
Cholesterol: trace
Sodium: 279 mg
Carbs: 15 g
Fibre: 7 g
Protein: 3 g

Diabetic exchange:
2.5 fat
1 starch

Wednesday Weigh-In

This week, I'm down 0.8 pounds!  I'm (again) surprised by this since I didn't a great deal of exercise, except for walking around the city on Thursday, Saturday, yesterday, and walking up and down the stairs a LOT yesterday doing laundry and taking a few loads of trash/recycling out.  But the walking wasn't a particularly cardio pace, but still - it's better than nothing, and it was pretty much all I felt up to after the arthrogram on Thursday (the procedure involving sticking a big-ass needle into my hip joint and then injecting loads of crap into my joint).

And, while I'm here, an update on my mom: As scheduled, she did come home Friday afternoon.  She's been feeling really tired since then, but she felt well enough yesterday to attend a luncheon she had committed herself to weeks ago.  It was her first "real" outing since coming home.  I want to thank everyone again for their thoughts, prayers, and concerns; it all meant a great deal to both of us.

Philly Elections in a Week

I don't usually go political here, but I got a surprise in the political propaganda that was shoved under my door yesterday.

As most of you know, I originally moved to Philly 12.5 years to go to law school.  After my first year of law school, I interned at the office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia in the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.  We handled the prosecutions of domestic violence, rapes, crimes against children, and elder abuse.

Two of the people running for judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas are people I worked for that summer - one of them is Christopher Mallios, Junior.

Chris was someone I greatly admired and respected.  Not only was an out gay man, but he was very open about it.  While I was out in law school, I wasn't confident enough to be out during my internship, but I watched him closely, and I considered him a role model.  Last night, I looked up the questionnaire he submitted to Liberty City, and (as I suspected) he has continued to be unashamedly openly gay during his campaign.

I actually emailed him last night (expecting that he would not remember me), but I wanted to let him know that I remembered him because of the impact he had made on me.  And I wanted to let him know that he had my support.  He wrote me back this morning, and his kind words meant a lot to me.

I think the City of Philadelphia would greatly benefit from someone like Chris on the bench.  If you don't agree with me, that's fine.  But don't forget to vote, anyway.

Book Review: Bel-Air Dead

As many of you know, I'm a fan of Stuart Woods, but his latest books haven't been hits with me.  I was really pleased when I received an ARC of his latest book "Bel-Air Dead" from Fresh Fiction because he has FINALLY returned to the Stuart Woods of old!

The sex scene were appropriate!

The flying scenes were not tedious!

The investigation was left to the detective!

It's as if Woods has read my last several reviews!

My full review can be found here.

Tomorrow

I spent a lot of today prepping for tomorrow.

Tomorrow could be big.